


These Dry Bones Are Crying Out

by bricoleur10



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Can be read as gen or slash, Canon-Typical Violence, Descriptions of past childhood abuse, Friendship, Gen, Somewhat Hopeful Ending, Spoilers for 7x04, Very much all the angst, descriptions of torture, on par for this season so far
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-29 23:33:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8509903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bricoleur10/pseuds/bricoleur10
Summary: Daryl and Rick have a conversation, Negan makes a speech, and decisions are made. Based on spoilers for next week’s episode, 7x04.





	

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Spoilers ahead. 
> 
> Ever since I found out that Daryl’s going to be in Alexandria in next week’s episode, this idea of a conversation between him and Rick has been in my head. 
> 
> And while I’ll go down with the good ship Rickyl, this can actually very easily be read as gen, as no romantic relationships are mentioned outright (except Maggie and Glenn, because, well, angst).

***

Rick knows he only has a few minutes. Less, even, if he’s really unlucky, which seems to be the theme these days. But still, when the opportunity arises for him to sneak away from the group and talk to Daryl, he knows he has to take it.

The other man is cuffed to the back of one of the trucks. There’s a guy guarding him – of course there is, because Negan’s a lot of things but stupid isn’t one of them – but he’s around the front of the vehicle smoking a cigarette and yelling orders at someone a few meters away, so he’s distracted, for now. 

Rick’s gut clenches hard, when he gets close enough to really _see_ Daryl. With his hair in his face, it had been hard to notice the bruises, before; but now that he’s right here he can make out every mark, every cut, every single injury that hadn’t been there before. “Daryl,” he breathes, and the other man starts noticeably, raising his hands instinctively and then wincing, when the cuffs pull at some hurt hidden from Rick’s eyes under those hideous gray sweats. 

Daryl calms down when he sees him, but still stays angled away, like he’s afraid Rick is going to hurt him, too. That’s when the fallen leader notices the bags under his eyes, the way those deep blue irises are glazed over like nothing he’s seeing is real at all.

Sleep deprivation, Rick realizes, his stomach rolling all over again. Sleep deprivation, and god knows what else. 

“Hey,” he says, trying to keep his voice low and soothing. “It’s okay, man. It’s going to be okay.” 

“No, it’s not.” Daryl says, and it takes him seconds longer than it should to get the words out. When he does, they’re scratched and rough, like he hasn’t used his voice in a long time, or maybe like someone had tried to choke him. Or both. Rick doesn’t see any bruises on his neck like handprints or rope, but he also can’t see much, with the way the sweatshirt is hanging. 

“Not yet,” Rick says, doing his best to keep hope in there, even if he barely feels it himself. “But it’s going to be. We’ll get you back. This won’t be…it’s not forever.” 

He’s been telling himself that for the past week. He’s been telling Carl and Michonne, Maggie and Rosita. Everyone. He’s still trying to be the leader, even though he’s not anymore. He’d said it again to them just this morning – he’s not in charge anymore. 

He failed. 

“Tell Maggie I’m sorry,” Daryl croaks, looking at the ground and flinching again, when Rick moves around to sit next to him. “I know she don’t wanna hear it, probably, and I don’t deserve…just tell her I thought it woulda been me. I didn’t mean…I’m sorry.”

Rick’s heart breaks. 

It’s not the first time he’s felt it – that irreparable crack in the foundation of his soul – hell, it’s not the first time he’s felt it this week. But that doesn’t make it any easier. This is harder, in some ways, because Glenn and Abraham…they’re _gone_. It hurts more than anything has in a long time – since Lori. But it’s final. Daryl’s still here. He’s _right here_. 

Except he’s really not. 

“Is that what they’ve been telling you?” He asks, his voice low, almost dangerous. Daryl scoots away from him and Rick silently curses himself. “Hey, it’s okay,” he croons, placing his hand on Daryl’s knee and squeezing gently, hanging on even when the other man tries at first to pull away. “It’s not your fault, Daryl. None of it. I shouldn’t have…” he shakes his head. If he starts pointing the finger at himself, he and Daryl will waste all their time going back and forth, pushing the blame around until it becomes too big to see around. It doesn’t matter, what Rick feels. All that matters right now is making sure Daryl doesn’t give up. “This is all on Negan. Okay? Hey,” he ducks his head, an echo of a conversation had so long ago, on a night they’d found each other against all odds. “Look at me.” 

Daryl does, and too quickly for Rick’s liking. He’s not broken, not yet, but Negan’s wearing him down to the point where he’s too afraid to not do what he’s told. “Don’t give up. We’ll come for you and –”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Daryl snaps, reanimating in a way that makes Rick’s heart soar – seeing the fight still there is the greatest relief he’s felt since the night Glenn and Abraham had been murdered – but it also scares him, because what Daryl’s actually saying isn’t promising at all. “Don’t come trying to save me. Don’t send anyone, Rick. Just…you can’t.”

“We can.” Rick insists. “We’ve been talking, about infiltration, and –” 

“Are you really that fucking stupid?” Daryl interrupts, and even though Rick knows he doesn’t _mean_ that, it still hurts. “You saw what he can do, what he _did_ , but…Rick, it ain’t the half of it. That place, where I’ve been…he’s got people _trained_. Like dogs. He breaks ‘em and then remakes him. They _kneel_ for him. You think there’s one guy y’all gotta fight? They’re _all_ Negan, Rick. Every single one of ‘em.” 

Rick swallows and stays quiet, because he really doesn’t know what to say to that. He remembers, back before everything had gone to shit, when they’d infiltrated that compound. The last man they’d killed, he’d said he was Negan, and Rick had shot him without blinking. He hadn’t really believed, then, that they’d won that easy, but he also hadn’t understood why the man had said what he’d said, either. He hadn’t really thought about it. Now he understands. 

Negan trains people to be just like him. 

And Daryl’s not. Not yet. But there’s only so long a man can go before…

“You’re not safe there.” He presses. And Daryl’s huffs, so annoyed that for a split second it almost feels normal. 

“Stop it, Rick. Just stop.” He pleads. “I can take it, alright. I deserve it.” 

“No you don’t.” 

And maybe seeing that they’ll never agree on this, either, Daryl doesn’t press it. Just shakes his head and goes on. “Fine, but I _can_ take it. You know I can.”

“But you shouldn’t –”

“When I was seven, my old man locked me in a closet for three days. Forgot I was there, and I nearly starved to death.” Daryl’s words aren’t at all what Rick had been expecting, and maybe that’s why he stops trying to make his point. Maybe that’s why Daryl’s saying them. 

Rick’s seen the scars, of course, and he knows what Daryl had lived through, growing up, but the other man has never talked about it before. Not even to Rick. It means everything, that he’s choosing right now to tell this story. 

“When I was ten, I got lost in the woods for nine days. Hunted to survive, found my way home.” He licks his lips, which makes him wince, but also seems to help him focus. “When I was eleven, he beat me so bad I passed out for over a day, never went to the hospital. Once when I was thirteen, I pissed him off so bad he locked me outta the house, chained me up in the backyard so I couldn’t run off, then broke my ankle when I tried anyway. Was out there a week before –”

“Why are you telling me this?” Rick asks, ashamed of the tears in his eyes not because Daryl’s stories don’t deserve a physical manifestation of sorrow, but because the man himself isn’t reacting at all, and had lived through them with more strength than Rick’s ever had. _Rick_ doesn’t deserve to cry for Daryl, because he’s done nothing but add to his pain. 

A tiny, rational part of him knows that’s not true, but in this moment, he feels too much grief to listen to that. 

“Need you to know,” Daryl takes a breath and, for the first time since Rick’s sat down, meets his eyes of his own free will. “I can take the punishment. He won’t break me, Rick. I won’t let him. But I wouldn’t…wouldn’t survive someone else dyin’ ‘cause of me.” 

“Glenn didn’t –”

“Just tell Maggie I’m sorry, alright?” He cuts in again, lowering his gaze to his hands – scabbed and coated with dried blood, Rick notes, hating himself all over again. “Tell her I didn’t think…tell her I’ll make it up to her. That I am, the best I can. For Glenn. Tell her that’s what I’m fighting for.” 

“You don’t have to do this alone.” Rick says the words, but he doesn’t believe them anymore. “We can get you back.” 

Daryl opens his mouth to say something else, but another voice, one they both know so well by now, that they both hate more than they’ve ever hated anything else in their lives, interrupts. 

“What’s this?” Negan sing-songs the question, and Rick watches as Daryl’s expression closes off completely, any progress they’d made in their short time together gone in a flash. “Old best buddies catching up behind my back?” 

Rick stands up quickly, doing his best to put himself in front of Daryl. It’s just for show, though. His protection isn’t worth anything anymore. 

“Now, now,” Negan tuts, swinging his bat from side to side like he’s wagging a finger at them. “That’s a no-no, isn’t it? Don’t want Daryl here getting any ideas about life outside the compound, now do we?” 

Negan pushes him out of the way and clamps a hand down, hard, on Daryl’s shoulder. The one he’d been shot in less than a week ago. The other man barely flinches, and Rick feels pride well up inside of him. Pride and hope. 

Daryl is _strong_. 

He’s always been the strongest one, of any of them. Maybe if he’d chosen to lead them from the beginning they wouldn’t be here right now. Rick feels like almost every decision he’s made since he’d first woken up from that coma has been wrong, and sometimes he wishes that he never had. Maybe if he’d stayed asleep, or died, then Lori and Shane would still be alive. And Beth and Hershel. T-Dog and Tyreese. Noah. Sam. Even Merle. 

And, of course, Abraham and Glenn. 

Maybe the father of Maggie’s baby would be here to see his child born, kiss the woman he loves as she brings life into the world for him, if Rick had just died before the world had ended. 

He doesn’t know how Daryl can blame himself for this, or how Maggie can – because she does, more than she’ll ever be able to blame anyone else – when in reality, Rick’s the one at fault. 

Rick had led them straight to this: their ending. 

“No one leaves the compound,” Negan’s still talking. Rick thinks the man will probably die in the middle of a monologue. He just hopes he’s around to see it happen. “Daryl here can tell you all about, can’t ya?” He squeezes Daryl’s shoulder _hard_. The other man clenches his teeth, but otherwise doesn’t react. “You either work the pole, work for points, or work for me. But we’re still in the negotiating process there, huh?” 

Rick doesn’t know exactly what Negan’s words mean, but Daryl obviously does. He stays quiet in the wake of Negan’s possibly rhetorical question, and Rick gets the feeling that the two of them have already had this conversation. Daryl might know Negan better than anyone at this point, in fact. Because as much as it kills Rick that he hadn’t been able to stop it from happening, Daryl is part of that world now. 

“I said,” Negan repeats, louder and with an exaggerated eyeroll. “We’re still negotiating, aren’t we?” 

The moment lulls, and for a breath everything feels still. Then, like lightening, Negan lets go of Daryl, turns towards Rick with the bat raised over his head, and lunges. 

Rick flinches back hard, almost stumbling when Negan stops _this close_ to bashing his skull in. 

Rick blinks a few times, trying to get his bearings back, and over the shock of not dying. When he refocuses enough to pay attention, he sees Negan laughing and Daryl looking off into the distance, like he can’t stand watching anymore. 

“You make me so glad, Rick,” Negan’s close enough to him that Rick can smell his breath, but he’s not flinching. Not again. “So glad that I chose the right man to take. ‘Cause that sonnova bitch over there,” he points the bat towards Daryl, “that guy don’t scare easy at all. And he’s _loyal_. You know how hard that is to find in this world? Damn, how hard it was to find in the _first_ one?” 

Rick’s breathing hard. He looks at Daryl but the other’s man head is down again, hair in his eyes. 

“And I’m gonna take that,” Negan tells him, laying out his game plan because he’s completely unafraid that someone might be able to sabotage it. “I’m gonna break him. Sooner or later I’m gonna break him and make him mine. I don’t care if I have to kill every single one of you in front of him to make it happen, but I will, my friend. I’ll beat him down ‘til there’s nothing left and then all that loyalty, all that faith and devotion…it’ll be mine, Rick. That’s the next thing I’m gonna take from you. And it’s gonna be even better than watching you cut your own kid’s arm off.” 

Negan laughs with genuine amusement, believing every word he says. 

Rick is shaking with anger and fear, but it unlocks something inside of him, hearing Negan promise to take Daryl from him in that way. 

He knows now that Maggie has been right from the beginning: It’s time to fight. 

Daryl says nothing, doesn’t react at all. But that’s okay. It doesn’t make Rick afraid, seeing the other man remain still. He knows Daryl’s not going to break. He may not be able to fight back yet, but he won’t break. And that’s all Rick needs. A window of opportunity. Time. 

He’s resolved now – to be the strength that Daryl has always been for him and his family. He’ll fight for both of them. For all of them. 

Negan isn’t going to win.

**Author's Note:**

> Song title from the song “Can’t Break Me” by Rhett Walker Band, which, in my opinion, should be Daryl’s new theme song. Hell of a lot better than that fucking Easy Street song I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in hating with a passion now.


End file.
